


an apology wouldn't hurt

by dat_heichou



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, 進撃！巨人中学校 | Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou | Attack on Titan: Junior High
Genre: Fluff, Junior High, M/M, council president marco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7225636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dat_heichou/pseuds/dat_heichou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco enjoys the responsibilities of being student council president.  But Jean doesn't deal very well with his friend being too busy to spend time with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an apology wouldn't hurt

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something short and cute for Marco's birthday, and I've been wanting to write something in the junior high universe for a while.
> 
> Also i owe the jeanmarco fandom something cute since the last thing i wrote was angst...

Out of all his friends, Marco had had the most realistic ideals of what a student president should be.  He quickly realized that serving the school wasn’t always the most fun, but it was an important responsibility and Marco wanted to do it right.

Explaining that to his best friend was difficult sometimes. 

“What do you mean you have another meeting today?” Jean whined, pouting with his lower lip.

Marco sighed, feeling guilt weight at his heart.  As much as he loved the satisfaction of getting things done for his fellow students, he still felt bad for not having the time to be there for his best friend.  He’d had increasing less free time since he accepted the president position, and his friend was obviously feeling neglected.  From what their classmates told him, Jean had been getting into more trouble than usual and during lunch breaks Jean was constantly complaining about how much fun Marco missed out on because of his “stupid errands.”

“I don’t have Wall Cleanup Club today, so I figured we could go to the arcade,” Jean’s cocky grin was smaller than usual and his voice was _hesitant_ when he added, “We haven’t done that in a while.”

Marco’s heart hurt even more after hearing Jean’s quiet statement.  He couldn’t deny that they hadn’t really had time to do anything fun together in a while.  “I’m sorry… maybe Connie and Sasha will go with you today?  I really have to go to this meeting because Ilse wants to write an article on the festival for the paper.”

Jean’s eyebrows furrowed at the mention of Ilse, the girl singlehandedly responsible for Marco’s position as president.  He thought for a surprisingly long moment before responding, “Well I can wait until you’re done. Maybe I could even sit in on the meeting?”

Marco bit his lip as he considered it.  After Jean’s messy flirting when he signed up to run for class president, Hitch had made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want him there.

But at the same time, Marco couldn’t handle how dejected and lonely Jean seemed lately.  Plus, it was really _flattering_ to hear Jean, who even Marco had to admit had the tendency to think about himself before others a majority of the time, offer to wait around for him.

And, Marco always had a soft spot for Jean.  He didn’t quite understand it, but it was true.

“Well, since you aren’t part of the student council, you’ll have to sit and listen, okay?”  Marco gave in.  He was nervous about it, but even then he couldn’t help but smile at the prospect of his best friend going out of his way to spend time with him.  It was sweet really, to know that his absence made his friend willing to sit in on what was inevitably going to be a boring meeting.

“I got this,” Jean grinned, perking back up to his usual self once more.  “You guys will forget I’m there, I promise.”

* * *

Jean hated being laughed at. Period.  He hated Jeager laughing at him more than probably just about anyone else.  Seriously, could he just shut up already, it wasn’t that funny.

“So…” Armin raised his voice to be heard over Eren’s boisterous laughter, “you were banned from the student council _and_ the newspaper club at the same meeting?”

“ _And_ he got a black eye from Hitch,” Eren snorted, “Man you _really_ screwed up.”

“Explains why you’ve been eating lunch with us now,” Mikasa stated.

Jean’s face fell as he sneaked a peek over at Marco’s empty desk.  Since the incident, Marco had quickly started eating with the student council in their office, hurrying out of the classroom immediately after class ended.  He hadn’t willingly stayed in the same room as Jean for more than 5 minutes at a time.

“I didn’t do anything _that_ bad!” Jean rationalized, “I don’t see why he’d get so mad at me.”

“You told them to just ask him out already and to stop wasting his time flirting by asking him to do things.  _Like his job,”_ Mikasa answered, her deadpan tone revealing a surprising amount of judgement.

“You guys can’t tell me those girls don’t like him,” Jean pouted, “It’s the truth, they bug him all the time.  Presidents don’t _have_ to be this busy.”

“But Marco takes his job seriously, Jean.  And you’re obviously not when you say things like that,” Armin chastised as he finished up his lunch.

Jean wanted to retort that he _had_ taken Marco’s job seriously.  That’s why he asked to sit in on such a boring and stupid meeting in the first place.  But he managed to just barely hold his tongue when he remembered the look of tired disappointment Marco had given to him that day.  There were times when even Jean Kirstein had to admit that he’d messed up.

“Yeah, but you act like an ass all the time and Marco forgives you, so I’m sure it’ll be fixed soon,” Eren replied easily, now that his laughter had finally subsided.

Jean felt his skin prickle at Eren showing him pity.  He must really look like a sorry mess if even Eren was being sort of comforting.

“I guess I’ll talk to him.  And… apologize…”  The word felt awkward on his tongue, as underused as it was.  But Jean was tired of being best-friendless and he wanted to finally fix it.

* * *

 

It wasn’t until Friday, a full week after Jean had gotten banned, that he managed to track down Marco long enough to talk to him. 

“Marco, can we talk?” he asked, cornering him outside the classroom as soon as their lunch period started.

“Not right now, I need to go deal with something,” the boy smiled awkwardly, still trying to rush off.

Jean was getting tired of these newly developed evasion skills Marco had, and he grabbed onto his arm to keep him from turning away from him.

“Look, I understand you’re mad, but let me talk,” Jean protested.  The urgency in his voice finally convinced Marco to stop and fully look at his best friend, who frankly looked like a nervous mess.  That caught his attention, because when was Jean ever openly nervous?

Jean took a harsh breath, before blurting out the carefully practiced words Armin and Mikasa had helped him with during their lunches together.  “I’m… sorry, Marco.  For embarrassing you in front of the council and making your job seem, um, belittled?”

Well, Marco didn’t try to pull away anymore.  Instead, he was staring at his friend with his mouth wide open in surprise. “Um, you’re sorry?” he asked.

“Yes!” Jean exclaimed, “So please stop hating me!  I know you probably _should_ hate me, because of all the times I’ve made you do stupid things and all the times you’ve had to get me out of trouble.”  He tried to think of the list of things Eren said that Marco should have found obnoxious, but it was quite frankly overwhelmingly long and the words didn’t come.

Marco furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head, in what Jean referred to as his puppy face.  It was nice to finally see something familiar, considering how distant Marco had been acting lately.  “I don’t hate you,” he finally mumbled, the end of the sentence lilting almost into a question.

“But you’ve been avoiding me,” Jean exclaimed in frustration, thinking about the surprising skill that Marco had displayed in evading him for a week.

“I’ve been busy.”  Marco frowned as he peeked at the hall clock on the wall behind Jean before adding, “And I’m still busy now.  I _promise_ I don’t hate you, but I have to get going.”

Jean opened his mouth to complain as Marco added, “I’ll talk to you after class today, okay?” and slipped out of his grip.

* * *

 

“Marco’s just too polite to properly hate you,” Eren grumbled around bites of his cheeseburger steak.

Jean sighed, leaning his head on his desk.  After that failure at a conversation, he wasn’t hungry anymore.  In fact, he just wanted to go home and forget that future disaster of a conversation.  Today just wasn’t his day.  Well, the whole week, really.

“That apology was a big step for you, Jean,” Armin added, “and Marco understands that.  So it probably won’t turn out that badly.”

“If you say so.”  Jean didn’t know how to feel.  He could tell that Marco was being honest about not hating him, but it still didn’t make much sense.  Why would he be even busier now?  It couldn’t have been a coincidence that his schedule would change right after such a blow up.

Though he was dreading their future conversation, the rest of the school day flew by and before he knew it, the classroom was empty except for him and Marco, who was carefully packing his books together.

Jean, who normally threw his books together haphazardly, also took his time for once because suddenly procrastination looked great.  Heck, he’d go clean the walls on his day off, if that would help postpone their conversation.

“Hey,” Marco quietly addressed him, obviously ready to go back to their lockers.  Even Marco looked a little timid, and Jean was 110% sure that meant a friendship dumping was about to happen.  That was a thing right?  Friend breakups? 

“I’m surprised you want to talk now,” Jean groused, his fear making him forget that he was _supposed_ to be holding his tongue, “Since you’re normally in such a hurry to get to your duties after school.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier,” Marco said with a nervous but honest smile, “I’ve been trying to get my work done during lunch because I realized that you were right.”

“Hah?”

“Well,” a light blush colored Marco’s cheeks before he continued, “I really have been busier than a normal council president, and I really haven’t been spending much time with you…  So I tried to get some stuff done during school so we could hang out… Like we used to?”

“Wait,” Jean stared slack-jawed as he tried to take in those words, “so you’ve been avoiding me… so you can spend time with me?”

“Well, I guess it sounds stupid…” Marco sighed. 

Jean suddenly grabbed Marco’s hand, derailing the taller boy’s current trains of thought.  He was faced with Jean’s bright and surprisingly earnest amber eyes.  “Are you sure you don’t hate me?” he asked again.

Marco nodded, words failing him for a moment before he finally managed to answer, “You _did_ apologize, which was nice.  But I don’t think I could ever really hate you.”

“That’s all I need to know,” Jean smiled softly before tugging on his best friend’s hand.  “Now let’s go do something fun.”


End file.
